Los Angeles Times' Scores

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For 16,522 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 56% higher than the average critic
  • 6% same as the average critic
  • 38% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 2.3 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 63
Highest review score: 100 Sand Storm
Lowest review score: 0 Saw VI
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8,697 out of 16522
  2. Mixed: 5,808 out of 16522
  3. Negative: 2,017 out of 16522
16522 movie reviews
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  1. Idiocracy
    The plot, naturally, is silly and not exactly bound by logic. But it's Judge's gimlet-eyed knack for nightmarish extrapolation that makes Idiocracy a cathartic delight.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Idlewild
    Patton and Benjamin can both hold the screen and are great in their musical sequences, but sorry, they aren't actors -- Terrence Howard, as the villain Trumpy, blows them into dust when he's on camera -- and their limited expressiveness detracts from the film's hallucinatory edge. The plot fails them too, as it takes turns we've seen in a dozen melodramas.
  3. The Quiet
    It never quite settles on whether it's a "Mean Girls" burlesque of teen life, an "American Beauty"-style bad-things-in-the-suburbs drama, or a wayward horror film. And it certainly never reconciles itself to successfully pulling off a hybrid of the three.
  4. Queens
    The movie has no higher ambition than to please a crowd; the fact that it easily does is proof of the world's heartening capacity for change.
  5. Buzz
    The result is an insightful look at a remarkable behind-the-scenes life and slice of American and Hollywood history. Told from an outsider's perspective, it sheds light on the workings of a glamorous but often treacherous business.
  6. The Dogwalker
    There seems to be a high level of personal commitment to the project. It is then all the more disappointing that such effort went into something that comes off so hollow and uninspired.
  7. Princesas
    Indeed, Aranoa loves these women so completely that his film seems overly drawn out at nearly two hours and likely would have had greater effect had it been half an hour shorter. Even so, Princesas remains largely engaging and rewarding.
  8. Snakes on a Plane
    The result is not quite a horror movie (too cheerful and can-do) or a thriller (too cheerful and stupid), nor does it parody itself or take itself seriously, thereby canceling out the camp factor. It's more like an improv sketch at 30,000 feet.
  9. The Illusionist
    Sewell and Giamatti ham it up as the imperious pretender to the throne and his ambitious but conflicted minion in this uncheesy but entertainingly tricky mystery. There's more heat between the two of them than between the sappy lovers.
  10. Factotum
    The result is a surprisingly satisfying film, true to Bukowski and itself, a work that manages to make the man and his profane world more palatable without compromising on who he was and what he stood for.
  11. Trust the Man
    The actors gamely keep up their spirits, but the male characters are too one-dimensional and the female characters too bizarrely divorced from reality to be at all engaging.
  12. Pusher III: I'm the Angel of Death
    If Pusher III is the trilogy's least effective, that may be because the soured-deal plot line is by now a given, and its theme is the simplest: Old habits die hard.
  13. King Leopold's Ghost
    Although King Leopold's Ghost dwells perhaps too long on the viciousness, it does offer clues on how it became a circle.
  14. Pusher II: With Blood On My Hands
    The introduction of a baby that Tonny supposedly fathered feels worrisome initially...but in Refn's skilled street-realist hands, the child becomes a potent, wailing metaphor for Tonny's own dilemma of rudderless need.
  15. Conversations with Other Women
    An intimate movie in every sense, Conversations With Other Women sets out to explore well-trammeled yet at the same time uncharted territory without grinding any axes. What it offers is a modest fantasy that will be familiar to contemporaries of Bonham Carter and Eckhart especially. It's sad and funny, satisfying and frustrating, totally familiar.
  16. Half Nelson
    What is different about Half Nelson is the execution, the kind of subtlety in writing, directing and acting (by costars Shareeka Epps and Anthony Mackie as well as Gosling) you seldom see.
  17. The L.A. Riot Spectacular
    Klasfeld has for his feature film debut churned out a lifeless series of sketch-comedy ideas that presumably would make even the Wayans brothers blanch at their broadness.
  18. Poster Boy
    Even with satisfying performances from the principal actors, Poster Boy is longer on energy than focus.
  19. House of Sand
    As original as it is lovely.
  20. World Trade Center
    The problem is not so much that World Trade Center is an attempt to make a feel-good movie about a ghastly situation, it's that the result feels forced, manufactured and largely -- but not entirely -- unconvincing.
  21. Lunacy
    For all its visual surprises and visceral shocks, Lunacy is still the kind of film that is easier to admire than it is to actually like.
  22. Barnyard
    It's always dispiriting to see children's movies succumb to desperate pandering to the coolness imperative, especially since, given the marketing muscle they tend to have behind them, the bigger trick seems to be in getting people not to see them.
  23. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
    A bit of a mess, but it is a genial mess, and one that will make you laugh. Which is the whole idea.
  24. The Bridesmaid
    Claude Chabrol makes his particular kind of unnerving, deliciously amoral thrillers look easy. Once you've made as many of them as he has, they probably are.
  25. My Country, My Country
    What My Country, My Country does best is show us that while both the Americans and the Iraqis care about the country's future, their cultural backgrounds and world views inevitably make them seem alien to each other.
  26. Quinceañera
    As sweet and gentle as it is, Quinceañera is quite clear-eyed about human cruelty and indifference. In structure, however, there is a circularity to the film that allows it to end on a well-earned upbeat note.
  27. Boynton Beach Club
    As a niche entertainment catering to an overlooked audience, Boynton Beach Club is remarkable mostly for its optimism and solid performances.
  28. Shock to the System
    So grimly determined to be even-handed that it never generates tension.
  29. Nightmare Man
    Intermittently fun and occasionally witty, with just the right touch of self-awareness.
  30. Miami Vice
    Without the ability to move off the mythic, without the emotional texture that "Heat" created, it is a film easier to admire than to get passionately involved with.
  31. Scoop
    The rapport between Allen and Johansson (pretending to be father and daughter) is lively, and the variations on the same old jokes are plentiful.
  32. 13 Tzameti
    Although it's likely too stark for everyone, 13 Tzameti offers a mind-blowing experience for anyone willing to go along for the ride.
  33. America: Freedom to Fascism
    The film raises more questions than it could possibly hope to answer fully, devolving from an intriguing look at an enticingly obscure issue into a more broadly based mess.
  34. Another Gay Movie
    Writer-director Todd Stephens set out to make the raunchiest gay teen movie ever, which this picture most certainly is, but the result is far more frenetic than funny.
  35. Brothers of the Head
    Thought-provoking as it is, Brothers of the Head keeps its distance, choosing to tell a story about telling stories. But the story itself remains an unexploited gold mine.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    My Grandmother's House
    The analogy feels forced, arbitrary, as do the movie's periodic spasms of impressionistic imagery.
  37. Little Miss Sunshine
    As ambitious, honest and subversive as any American movie since "Election."
  38. Darshan: The Embrace
    While Amma's teachings of love, inner peace and Karma, or action, resonate in the film -- obviously, Amma is a woman called to God -- her background remains pretty much a mystery. Less National Geographic and more personal history would have added a dimension to "Darshan."
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Been Rich All My Life
    MacDonald seems less interested in the Silver Belles' past than their inspirational present. Eventually, the inevitable broken hips and dizzy spells take their toll, but those who remain seem determined to shuffle-step their way into the sunset.
  40. Lady in the Water
    There is something bizarrely compelling about the movie. It's slower than watching a train wreck but invokes that same level of disbelief.
  41. Monster House
    Has a return-to-innocence sweetness that recalls some of the work of another of its executive producers - Steven Spielberg. Kids may grow up too fast today to embrace the film's familiar message of the virtues of an unhurried adolescence, but it's nice to be reminded of the possibility.
  42. My Super Ex-Girlfriend
    The movie doesn't purport to have her stand for all women, just the crazy ones, and as such, G-Girl is pure, soul-cleansing id catharsis.
  43. Azumi
    An uneven effort overall that when it is working has a strange, engaging energy that is often overturned by an uncertain staidness.
  44. Fan-Fan the Tulip
    With Philipe apparently doing a lot of his own stunts, Fanfan is replete with heroic leaps, speedy horse rides, occasional explosions and clashing sabers. If this all sounds like a 1950s version of "Pirates of the Caribbean," that may not be such a bad comparison.
  45. Little Man
    Devoid of verbal wit, instead relying on a relentless stream of Looney Tunes-inspired violence.
  46. You, Me and Dupree
    Doesn't aspire to be much more than a serviceable summer comedy, and the script displays the engineered precision of a theme park ride.
  47. Changing Times
    Despite its weaknesses, Changing Times ("Les Temps Qui Changent" in French) is always watchable and even poignant from time to time. What it is never going to be is the grand passion of anyone's moviegoing life.
  48. Mini's First Time
    Lacks originality.
  49. The Oh in Ohio
    Parker Posey, the queen of the indies, is a stylish actress, but there's not much she can do with the flat, trite sex comedy The Oh in Ohio, written by Adam Wierzbianski and directed by Billy Kent without a trace of imagination or originality.
  50. Time to Leave
    As with any Ozon film, Time to Leave comes across with unexpected moments of illuminated stillness.
  51. Edmond
    Edmond does, on the surface, seem very much a contemporary tale of urban terror. Yet despite the best efforts of all concerned, what seemed explosive and provocative two decades ago now comes across as schematic and artificial.
  52. Gabrielle
    A period chamber drama drawn from a Joseph Conrad short story and of such intensity and passion that it transcends a specificity of time and place to achieve timelessness and universality.
  53. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
    Intermittently fun and high-spirited, Dead Man's Chest sags under the weight of its own running time.
  54. A Scanner Darkly
    The brilliance of A Scanner Darkly is how it suggests, without bombast or fanfare, the ways in which the real world has come to resemble the dark world of comic books.
  55. Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos
    An exuberant look at a heady moment in America's soccer past that is well worth remembering.
  56. Cease Fire
    Cease Fire is no art film but, rather, mainstream fare that's likely to appeal primarily to Farsi-speaking audiences. It is talky, too long at 1 hour, 44 minutes and tends to be preachy and tedious.
  57. Heading South
    Lonely, bitter, insecure and clearly unstable, the women are meant to level the emotional playing field and add depth to what is, at heart, a story about the exploitation of poor nations by rich and powerful ones. But they wind up being too bitter and unstable to elicit much sympathy.
  58. The Devil Wears Prada
    The Devil Wears Prada spins Weisberger's rant into a sharp, surprisingly funny excursion into the catty realm of women's magazines. The movie skips the condescension usually aimed at this world in favor of rapt observation.
  59. Superman Returns
    Star Routh's presence and the joys of flight keep Superman Returns alive, but all those missteps dog its heels, holding it back like little touches of Kryptonite in the night.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    The Motel
    A well-worn coming-of-age tale enlivened by pungent detail and a sharp visual sense.
  61. Strangers with Candy
    A film that never quite manages to justify its existence.
  62. Who Killed the Electric Car?
    Fascinating documentary.
  63. Wassup Rockers
    At a certain point, Wassup Rockers transforms from a relatively naturalistic slice-of-life portrait into a surrealistic funhouse trap.
  64. Waist Deep
    As its plot thickens, Waist Deep gets more outlandish. The whole mess empties out into an overextended car chase through Los Angeles.
  65. Say Uncle
    The ending is a little too neat and smacks of wishful thinking, but Paige has created an engaging and insightful entertainment with considerably more substance than most small-budget, independent gay films.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Two Drifters
    With a title nicked from "Breakfast at Tiffany's," Two Drifters styles itself as a classical romance, albeit one in which half the couple is either deceased or deranged.
  67. The Road to Guantanamo
    There are some blunders on The Road to Guantanamo. The movie front-loads its first-person accounts with a short list of facts to keep in mind as we watch, creating an imbalance that serves only to undercut the movie's overall credibility.
  68. The Great New Wonderful
    The movie falls short of the grandeur it's reaching for, but if you're looking for balm to soothe your frazzled nerves, you may be able to scrape some from the movie's rawer edges.
  69. Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man
    Succeeds best when it intensifies its focus on the work and life of its main subject, seen in interviews, home movies and in a climactic performance with Bono and the Edge on "Tower of Song."
  70. The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
    This third installment of the popular series about fast cars and the posturing boys who love them is best viewed as an energetic cartoon, an unintentionally amusing, head-shaking guilty pleasure that will divert those not in the mood for anything more profound than gleaming metal and preening women.
  71. The Lake House
    A chronological brain-teaser confounding enough to keep you busy trying to figure out whether those holes are in the story or in your logic. But ultimately the movie is more interested in the love part of the equation than in the whole crazy, madcap physics part.
  72. Nacho Libre
    What's rare to see, and what ultimately makes Nacho Libre so enjoyable, is the story of an underdog who's allowed to remain a humble clown all the way to becoming a hero.
  73. Loverboy
    Loverboy is a grim little story, but it's leavened unexpectedly with humor and energy. A stylish and thoughtful director, Bacon marries music to image beautifully.
  74. Lower City
    The themes are all familiar and the plot unfolds slowly and in predictable ways, but there's plenty of heat generated by the three leads.
  75. The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green
    Inoffensive even as it makes some fairly explicit sex jokes, "Ethan Green" may not exactly be fabulous, but it is pleasantly diverting.
  76. Only Human
    Mines the comic possibilities of the classic setup of introducing the fiancé to the family, with results that are playful, charming and surprisingly thoughtful.
  77. Wordplay
    Delightful.
  78. Dog Lover's Symphony
    The only suitable ending for such a stinker involves a twist-tie and a baggie.
  79. Cars
    What's surprising about this supremely engaging film is the source of its curb appeal: It has heart.
  80. A Prairie Home Companion
    The result is at once familiar and disconcerting, meta-Keillor done in Altman's desultory, distracted style.
  81. Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul
    Crossing the Bridge does more than offer a wide variety of entertaining and intoxicating Turkish music. It also uses music to paint a portrait of a vibrant, cosmopolitan city and provide a window into a rich and varied national culture.
  82. The Heart of the Game
    An exhilarating story of loyalty and perseverance, The Heart of the Game succeeds as both inspiration and social commentary.
  83. The Long Weekend
    Excruciatingly unfunny.
  84. Autumn
    The twists and reversals that pile up, stirred by greed, friendship and betrayal, fail to register any meaning, simply accumulating -- so that ultimately Autumn is as dry and lifeless as the leaves that fall to the ground in its opening images.
  85. The Omen
    Despite slick camera work by Jonathan Sela and intense, naturalistic performances by Liev Schreiber and Julia Stiles, The Omen retains the aura of ceremonious kitsch of the first movie, favoring a well-lighted, upscale Goth aesthetic punctuated with flashes of well-timed, cymbal-crashing shockers and giggly camp.
  86. The Break-Up
    I'd be happy to see it listed in an in-flight magazine, but "Annie Hall" it's not.
  87. District B13
    More athletes than actors, Raffaelli and Belle are terrific when their bodies are in motion but the movie grinds to a halt when they open their mouths.
  88. The War Tapes
    The film acutely captures the topsy-turvy uncertainty of life during wartime, where there's Burger King and land mines and Pizza Hut and snipers.
  89. The Puffy Chair
    A pointed and nicely observed screenplay that guides us on an often funny journey through familiar terrain made fresh by their off-center sensibility and three fine performances.
  90. Typhoon
    Ambitious and impressive, both in its provocative themes and superb production design using striking sets and locations in Korea, Russia and Thailand, this handsome epic amply rewards audiences willing to go the distance.
  91. The Conrad Boys
    The Conrad Boys reveals little cinematic instinct or imagination but has a deeply personal quality that becomes engaging.
  92. Favela Rising
    Memorable and significant.
  93. Peaceful Warrior
    The sage-elder/wayward-charge saga Peaceful Warrior aims for inspirational highs but mostly feels like a self-help book read aloud by actors.
  94. Coastlines
    For fans of Nunez's previous work, it's almost as if he put in all the clichés he would normally avoid and left out the wonderfully textured internal moments that made "Ruby" and "Ulee's Gold" unique.
  95. X-Men: The Last Stand
    Ratner seems to have found a theme that he can relate to: A terrifying trio of angry, undomesticated women who all but run away with the movie.
  96. Cavite
    A dark, riveting thriller.
  97. Fanaa
    To resort to strictly ethnocentric references, Fanaa is equal parts MGM extravaganza, Shakespeare lite and James Bond. In their heart of hearts, isn't that what movie audiences really want?
  98. An Inconvenient Truth
    Although the message of the film sounds bleak, it is actually quite rousing.
  99. La Moustache
    Emmanuel Carrère's witty, elegant La Moustache is a deliciously unsettling, beautifully sustained enigma, a film of much beauty and flawless performances, especially from Vincent Lindon in one of his most demanding roles.
  100. The Da Vinci Code
    While the story plays better on the page than the screen and some of the film's elements work better than others, a proficient Ron Howard version of things is certainly competent if only occasionally thrilling.
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